Fairhaven Employees Responsible for 100 Pride Flags Taken Down at Town Hall

We told you yesterday about how 100 Pride Month flags had disappeared from the front lawn at Fairhaven Town Hall Wednesday night into Thursday. Five people planted the flags into the front lawn just before sundown on Wednesday night. Sometime between 8 p.m. that night and 6:30 a.m. the following morning, someone removed all 100 flags.

We now know who took down the Pride flags.

A town employee was directed to remove them by Fairhaven town officials. While she wasn't able to come to the phone, interim Town Administrator Wendy Graves confirmed through her assistant that the town hall's custodian was instructed to remove the Pride flags from the lawn.

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"The town has a no flag flying policy," Graves' assistant said. "Nothing is allowed to fly on town property without approval from the selectmen's office. When we came in Thursday morning, the custodian did remove them because of our no flag flying policy."

When asked who instructed the custodian to remove the flags, Graves' assistant told us that she believed it was the town administrator and the board of selectmen.

While United States flag code states that the only flags that should be flown under the American flag are state and city flags or a POW flag, the small Pride flags were not on a flag pole.

Across the street from Fairhaven Town Hall is the Millicent Library. The library, which sits on town property, was flying the Pride flag this afternoon, as evidenced in the photo above. Library Director Kyle DeCicco-Carey told us that while the building and land are town-owned, the library staff members are not employees of the town.

Last year, a new policy was put into place in Fairhaven that prohibited the flying of any flags on town property other than the American flag without the permission of the board of selectmen.

A group of Pride supporters plans on returning Saturday night to plant more Pride flags into the lawn of Fairhaven Town Hall. A Pride rally will take place Sunday morning at 9:30 in front of the town hall.